Category: God’s Love

According to Wikipedia, the deepest natural point in the world is the Mariana Trench, also known as the Marianas Trench. It is located in the western Pacific Ocean and its maximum known depth is 36,070 ft (10,994 meters).

To give us an idea of how deep 36,070 feet is, Wikipedia informs us that if Mount Everest, which is 29,029 feet (8,848 meters) is dropped into the Mariana Trench, its peak would be 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) below the surface of the Marianas Trench. Now that is deep; however, as deep as the Trench is, it has a limit because the Pacific Ocean has a floor. Our Father’s love, on the contrary, is limitless. There is no end to His love as reiterated throughout the Bible and stated powerfully in the song, “O the Deep Deep Love of Jesus.”*

Here is the first verse: O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast unmeasured, boundless, freeRolling as a mighty ocean, in its fullness over meUnderneath me, all around me, is the current of Thy loveLeading onward, leading homeward to Thy glorious rest above

My favorite rendition of this beautiful song is by the group, Selah, and it is shared below. Mark Ladd and Samuel T. Francis are the songwriters and the full lyrics of “O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus” can be found here.

Like this:

Value – The worth of something compared to the price paid or asked for it.

What is your value? What are you worth? Not much, according tothe world’s standards, if you lack wealth, accomplishments, popularity, physical beauty, possessions, intellect, power, status, and the like.

What is your value? What is your worth?

You were worth Jesus to God. “For God so loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His[One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life.” This, dear one, is your true value. This is your true worth.

I am joining the Five Minute Friday writing community, hosted by Kate Motaung, for our weekly writing adventure. Please click here to learn about Five Minute Friday. This week’s prompt is, “Value.” The definition of “Value” used in the post is from oxforddictionaries.com.

This business of love, it started with God, is maintained by Him, and will exist forever because He is Love. When the Word became flesh and dwelled among us (1 John 1:14), Love was embodied.

“This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His unique Son on a special mission to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins. So, my loved ones, if God loved us so sacrificially, surely we should love one another. No one has ever seen God with human eyes; but if we love one another, God truly lives in us. Consequently God’s love has accomplished its mission among us” (1 John 4:10-12, VOICE)

This business of love, it started with God, is maintained by Him, and will exist forever because He is Love. “We love because He has first loved us.” We can love only because He first loved us and will love us always. May we be convinced like the Apostle Paul was that NOTHING can ever separate us from God’s love.

Nothing Can Separate Us from God’s LoveWhat shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”)No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39, NLT).

Unimaginable glory laid aside,
Human flesh and vulnerability donned,
The Creator among His creation.
Submission to earthly parents.
Leaving when the time came.

Appearing to be baptized of John.
Driven into the wilderness.
40 days of fasting.
Tempted throughout –
“If you are the Son of God, do.”
“Worship me and I will give.”
Responding with the Word.

Father’s business,
Saying only His words,
Doing only His works.
Rejection by those He came to save.Name calling:
Glutton
Drunkard
Friend of tax collectors and other sinners.Character questioned.
Threatened with death.

Wrestling in Gethsemane,
Capillaries bursting under the strain.
Wrestling with what had to be done to redeem us –
“If it is possible, let this cup pass”
Yielding,
“Your will, not Mine.”

Knowing completely all that would happen,
But face set as a flint.
Stepping forward.
The kiss of betrayal.

Pain wracked,
Bloodied,
Carrying His cross up Golgotha’s hill.Simon of Cyrene conscripted.
The nails.
The agony of breathing.
The mocking taunts of those who passed by:
“Save yourself.”
“Come down from the cross if you are the Son of God.”
The mocking of the justly condemned thief,
“Save yourself and us.”

The anguish of feeling forsaken.Letting go of the relationship with the one who bore Him –
“Woman, behold your son.”
“Behold your mother.”

Praying for forgiveness for the mockers,
For those crucifying Him.
The thirst.
Then,
“It is finished.”
And the releasing, the yielding of His spirit.
Completion.

Redemption was free…for the redeemed.
Costly,
Beyond any human’s ability to pay, for the Redeemer.

Like this:

It bends my mind.
A response congruent with the truth of Isaiah 55:8-9:
His thoughts are not mine.
Neither are His ways.
And both are higher than mine.

It bends my mind.
This truth that the creating Word,
the sustaining-all-things-by-His power Word,
willingly divested Himself of His glory.
Wrapped Himself in flesh.
Allowed Himself to be mocked and scorned.
Battered beyond recognition.
To redeem us.
To redeem me.

Like this:

Whatever the name on your birth certificate. Whatever names others have called you. Your truest name is, “Beloved.”

“Consider the kind of extravagant love the Father has lavished on us—He calls us children of God! It’s true; we are His belovedchildren. And in the same way the world didn’t recognize Him, the world does not recognize us either” (1 John 3:1, VOICE).

“This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His unique Son on a special mission to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10, VOICE).

The Apostle John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, testified, “We know how much God loves us because we have felt his love and because we believe him when he tells us that he loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him. And as we live with Christ, our love grows more perfect and complete; so we will not be ashamed and embarrassed at the day of judgment, but can face him with confidence and joy because he loves us and we love him too” (1 John 4:16-17, TLB).

May we believe God when He tells us that He loves us dearly. Remember, He is not a man that he should lie. Let His word stabilize your emotions and banish all doubt suggested by your circumstances. As stated in this note in the VOICE translation related to 1 John 3:1-2,

“When we feel like we are not good enough to be loved by God, we should remember that God’s love is greater than our doubts. We must silence the sounds of condemnation so we can hear the voice of God’s loving assurance and remember that He has selected us to be part of His family.”

“My loved ones, we have been adopted into God’s family; and we are officially His children now. The full picture of our destiny is not yet clear, but we know this much: when Jesus appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2)

“For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
(Isaiah 9:6, NKJV)

“For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16, AMP)

Today is the last day of Advent 2017. Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of our Savior. There was no other way to redeem us so He, the Word through whom all things were made and are sustained, He became flesh for us. May this truth constantly boggle our minds, bend our knees, and so fill our hearts with gratitude, that our lips and lives overflow with praise and worship.